Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens

Today I went to the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens. The zoo was horribly depressing. The animals were in small cages with cement and they did not look very happy. So, we quickly walked through and headed for the botanical gardens and they were beautiful. We saw all sort of flowers, plants and surprisingly there was a lot of cacti. The park was huge so we were pretty wiped at the end of walking through there but before we left we went up the Sky Tower. It was really cool and it gives a great view of Nagoya. From high up you can see apartment building, bridges and sky scrapers for miles.
Tomorrow is my big move to Okazaki where I will finally be able to unpack and start my normal life in Japan. My performance supervisor, Vince, will be meeting me at the train station and he is going to help me move in and get things like a bank account and a cell phone in order. On tuesday I will begin teaching. I believe that I will be team teaching for the first week and then I will be off on my own! I'm lucky with my move tomorrow because Okazaki is roughly 35km south of Nagoya. Some people have to be on a train by 8am and will be travelling for several hours.
I will be in touch soon when I am settled in Okazaki with my new life. talk to you all soon

Kent in Japan

This is a special post for Kent. I saw these in a vending machine and thought you might like to see them. Oh and apparently you have a restaurant named for your b ball team as well. I think there is something you're not telling us, Kent. Enjoy.

Costumes in Japan

I recently went to a store called Tokyu Hands and it's about 9 stories high and you can buy pretty much anything there. I stumbled across the costume section and couldn't help but to take some pics of what they have to offer. The Japanese really seem to have a sense of humor like no other. So hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

I'll let you figure out what the costumes are on your own. I would love to see some of you wearing these this halloween. Maybe you'll see a pic of me in one of them.......

Hi All

Hi all,

So this is my blog. I'm still new at this so please be patient. I'm sitting right now at the train station a few mins from my place and i'm scaming wireless internet. I'll just wait till someone says something, but I doubt they will, so far the Japanese are very polite and nice people. So the pics that i'm gonna try to add will be from the first weekend that I was here. I went to Nagoya Castle with a group of girls that I am training with. The castle was amazing and very beautiful. Shortly after we left the castle a huge thunder storm hit and I got caught in the rain. It was actually kind of refreshing on such a hot and humid day. The first one is a close up of the roof and it is adorned with 2 gold dolphins. the second is the group of us. the third are school kids leaving school after archery practice and finally another view of the castle.

Anyways, hope this works.

First Post

So this is my first blog. Thanks to Kent. I'm currently in Nagoya, Japan. The weather is really hot and humid but there are lots of neat things to see. Yesterday I went into the city with some other teachers and we were being guided around by a married couple who currently works for Peppy Kids. They are friends of one of the teachers who I met in the Vancouver airport, Erinn. Erinn actually graduated from U of Calgary the same day that I did. I start my first day of training tomorrow. Today I'm planning on visiting some of the local shrines and temples. I'll let you know how it goes.